smoky eggplant pasta

Pre-heat the oven to 475 F (250 C) or even hotter, with a dry cast-iron pan on a low rack. Once the oven is ready, place into this very hot, dry pan

• half an eggplant (cut side down) or two halves of a small eggplant,
• a tomato or two cut in half, and
• one coarsely chopped onion.

Ignore this for 45 minutes; it's supposed to burn. Then pull it out, peel the eggplant and tomatoes with tweezers, and add

• 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream,
• lots of pepper and salt,
• 1 tbsp each of tomato paste and vinegar
• paprika (optional), thyme (optional), crushed garlic (optional), and
• mushroom powder (optional) or a broth cube (optional).

Chop up the roasted veg in the cream with your metal spatula so it's chunky, and also scrape the pan to get the burned bits into the sauce. Simmer on the stovetop (or in a 250 F or 120 C oven), covered, for 45 minutes. At the end, cook (or even slightly under-cook) 1/2 lb of pasta of choice (I like fettuccine for this). Add to the sauce

• 1/2 cup of the pasta water,
• the pasta, and
• a handful of chopped fresh basil.

Mix, and serve, with an enormous amount of grated parmesan cheese. Serves 3.

pasta with anchovy red sauce

I love how easy and fast this is! And in these times of crisis, it can be made with long-lived pantry ingredients. So it is a self-quarantine specialty. It comes from the 'fuzz's friend Emily.

While your pasta water is heating, sauté in olive oil one finely chopped onion and one finely chopped clove of garlic and one 2-oz can of anchovies until the onions are very soft. The anchovies will dissolve in this process. Add one 6-ish-oz can of tomato paste and as much red-pepper flakes as you can stand, and maybe a bit of salt (the anchovies already provide some salt). Simmer this mess while half of a one-pound package of pasta cooks (preferably spaghetti, says the 'fuzz). When the pasta is done (don't over-cook it), mix the very thick sauce with one cup of pasta water and the pasta itself.

Serves four. If it isn't the end times, garnish with lots of chopped parsley. Variation: Cook without the hot flakes and add them to the garnish. That's good if you have some guests who don't like it hot.

Update: This post supersedes this slower and slightly more boring version of this dish.

creamy macaroni and cheese

Quite a few years ago I published a brutal recipe for mac and cheese, which sustained us for many years. This week I am under doctor's orders to eat nothing but soft food and nothing acid (don't ask). So I decided to fire up a super-soft mac and cheese.

While a one-pound (dry weight) boxful of macaroni is boiling in the pot, make a roux by cooking a few tbsp of flour in a few tbsp of butter until it just starts to change color. Add milk slowly, whisking to keep the roux from forming clumps. Then add about a pound (maybe less) of grated cheese. The milk-to-cheese ratio sets the texture of the dish; use your judgement. And you can use any cheeses you like here; I sometimes even use this recipe to clear the fridge of remainders of cheeses (as I did today). Heat the roux-milk-cheese sauce and add in the macaroni, preferably slightly before the pasta is truly done, with lots of pepper and salt to taste. Either eat it immediately (as I did today), or else top it with more cheese (and maybe breadcrumbs?) and put it in a 400 F (200 C) oven to finish the top.

Interesting fact though: When you bake it, it becomes far less creamy! I think it's probably because the macaroni absorbs some of the milk. So if you want it super-creamy, either don't bake it, or else go with way more milk than you think is sensible.

pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes

It being end of summer and all, and me being over-confident in my no-recipe kitchen skills, I did the following today: I softened up two chopped onions and a bit of red pepper (because it was there) in a stick of butter. I then filled the pot with halved tomatoes (maybe 15 tomatoes) that the 'fuzz brought me from the Union Square Farmer's Market. I didn't peel the tomatoes first because (a) it isn't rocket science, and (b) I know I will be able to fish out the peels later. I added two cloves of garlic (smacked), 1 tbsp of red-wine vinegar, some fresh basil, some sprigs of fresh thyme, and a lot of salt and pepper (and a bit of that Japanese hot spice I have for ramen).

I started this all cooking. The tomatoes immediately released a lot of water and their skins, which I fished out (easily). I then executed the ultimate total-neglect move: I put the pot, uncovered, into a 275 F (135 C) oven and waited, stirring once an hour.

After 3 hours I pulled it out, pulled out the thyme sprigs, mashed the rest (with a potato masher) and then put it on the stovetop to reduce it further. That is, it wasn't thick enough (for my taste). Next time I'll do it at 300, not 275, with the hope that it will come out thicker. But it tastes great!

Recipes on the internet say you should peel and then seed the tomatoes before starting. I'm not sure why.

tomato sauce for pasta

I got this recipe from Kate Hamerton (who modified it from something in The Times): Put one stick of butter, one large can of whole tomatoes, and one onion,
quartered, into a saucepan with salt to taste. Simmer for one hour, mashing the tomatoes as little or as much as you like. Remove onions at the end. Crazy!

cabbage and bacon

Cabbage burned (or browned) in butter (or any fat) is just downright delicious, especially in the winter! In what follows I use bacon but you can use butter or olive oil if you are vegetarian or vegan and it works well.

Try out 1/4 pound (or less) bacon, cut into tiny bits. Remove the crispy bacon to a bowl, but leave in the fat. Throw in a chopped onion and cook until soft. Add a half a cabbage, cut into small pieces. Stir it all up with lots of pepper and some salt and leave it there on medium heat until it starts to burn in the fat. Don't stir until it starts to really burn! Turn it once and let it start to burn again.

Now you have options: You can add cooked, drained pasta, a bit of cream, some grated parmesan cheese, and the bacon bits to make "cavolo pasta". You can add all of the above except the pasta to make a cabbage-as-pasta non-pasta dish. You can just mix in the bacon and serve it as a side with anything (like latkes or sausages). Another improvisation that worked well was apples, sautéed with the cabbage.

tuna pasta

Here's a crowd-pleaser in high rotation chez Hogg: While pasta (1/2 to 3/4 lb) is boiling, put together a few minced (or pressed) garlic cloves, one finely chopped shallot (or most of an onion or most of a leek), and a can of oil-packed tuna in some additional olive oil (enough for the pasta). Heat it up until it gets fragrant and then turn off the heat. Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, chopped parsley, and chopped, oil-cured olives. Maybe also pine nuts, capers, lemon rind, be creative!. Mix cooked pasta with tuna mixture. Serves 3 1/2 (that is, less than 4) but it is easy to double.

lasagne

I have repeatedly found, checked (by experiment), stopped believing, and then re-checked (by more experiments) the obvious and yet completely unknown fact that you don't have to pre-boil lasagne noodles before making a lasagne in the oven! Here's my dumb recipe, which sure ain't rocket science:

Fill an oven-proof pan with various layers. For this one, I did a bottom layer of chopped onions and carrots, olive oil and a tiny bit of crushed tomatoes, then a layer of raw, rigid noodles, then a layer of crushed tomato with some cheese, then noodles, then an enormous layer of raw baby spinach with some hard cheese, then noodles, then a layer of tomato and cheese, then a layer of noodles, and then a top layer of tomato, mozzarella, and hard cheese. It was mounded up in the pan like this:

After one hour in a 400 F (200 C) oven, it looked like this:

All noodles cooked. Adjustments for next time: Put more cheese in the layers; add garlic to the bottom layer; salt and pepper each layer. Remember: Pre-boiling is for suckers. And no, I didn't use the "pre-boiled" or "oven-ready" noodles either (those are fine though, I hate to admit).

hand-chopped pesto

At the suggestion of the 'fuzz, I took a small handful of pine nuts, a small handful of hazelnuts, a few cloves of garlic, a large bunch of fresh basil leaves, a small hunk of hard cheese, a bit of salt, and chopped and chopped and chopped. Then I mixed it with enough olive oil (home-made, thanks Kate and Yanni!) to make a solid mass of pesto. We mixed this with spaghetti and ate it with a side of fresh tomato and mozzarella to make a surprisingly awesome late-summer dinner.

macaroni and cheese

I took PMC's statement that it was impossible to make macaroni and cheese without pre-boiling the noodles as a challenge, and produced the following. I love it, but it won't satisfy those who identify the dish with creaminess. Cheesiness, more like it!

Put 8 oz macaroni in a lot of hot tap water for 30 min while the oven pre-heats to 400 F (200 C). Cut cubes of swiss and cheddar cheese until you have two or three cups. Drain the macaroni and mix with the cubes of cheese. Butter a cast-iron pan with as much butter as you can stand to use, pour in the macaroni and cheese, fill with milk until more-than-covered, and generously salt and pepper. Bake for 45 min.

Serves four. Double the recipe, make it in a big oven dish, and serve eight.

Spätzle

Hans-Walter Rix (Director of the MPIA) made this German classic for me, in preparation for an attempt on Käsespätzle I plan to make later this week.

Get some water boiling on the stove and salt it. Mix 200 g flour (about 1.5 cups) and plenty of salt with 2 eggs until smooth. Add water (the word is that soda water works better than flat water, but we did not perform any comparison) a bit at a time and stir until you get a dough that is slightly foamy and flows, but which is not fully liquid.

Pour the dough onto a small cutting board and fling small bits of it into the boiling water with a flexible knife. Boil for a few minutes until the noodles are solid. Drain and then either serve with butter, or else sauté with butter and serve with salt, pepper, and cheese.

If you make the dough too liquid, the noodles become too small and water-logged. Interestingly, the liquid can be replaced with broth or puréed spinach to vary the taste. Top Spätzle makers have a large ricer that looks like an enormous garlic press to make consistent noodles from the dough. I think PMC may have one of these?

tomato sauce with anchovy

No rocket science for this quick and tasty treat: Soften up 1 or 2 thinly sliced or chopped onions and 4 to 8 anchovies in a substantial amount of butter. Add canned crushed tomatoes (or whole). Salt generously. Simmer for 10 to 30 min or until thick. Adjust salt.

We ate this tonight with supermarket tortellini.

lasagne

I was very pleased to discover this month that lasange does not require pre-cooking of the noodles (which, if you count water-boiling time, almost doubles the preparation time). I just soaked the lasagne noodles in tap water while I heated up some pasta sauce (which I made earlier in the week by frying onions and cut-up sausage in a whole lot of butter and then simmering with a large can of crushed tomatoes and a lot of salt). I layered the noodles and sauce with soft and hard cheese and raw spinach. I reserved a lot of cheese for the top. I put it in a 350 F oven for an hour, let stand for 20 min, and then ate it! Warning: A big pan requires a double order of sauce.

It is clear that if you are in a real hurry, you could just layer unsoaked, uncooked noodles with raw spinach, unheated crushed tomatoes, cheese, salt, and pepper, and cook it for a bit longer and it would work just fine; I have yet to try this, though.

It is also clear that it will be possible to make macaroni and cheese with no pre-oven preparation: That's tonight's experiment!

braised cabbage pasta

This recipe was made up by me in an attempt to re-create a wonderful meal made by PMC many years ago in Québec City for the 'fuzz and me. I hereby call out PMC to post the real recipe! I think this is not really a recipe, in fact, but rather a recipe algorithm, which means that you can play arbitrary games with the fat, the meat (including dropping the meat entirely), the onions, the greens, and the liquid.

• 1/4 lb prosciutto or bacon or bresaola or equivalent
• 2 leeks or 1 onion or a couple shallots, finely sliced
• 1 large cabbage or 1 large bunch of collard greens, or a mixture, shredded
• 1 glass of wine (red or white)
• pasta for 4 (what the package says serves 6 or 8)
• hard cheese

While the water for pasta is coming to a boil, try out the meat (I used prosciutto) in some olive oil with the shallots or equivalent (I used shallots). If you have a fatty meat, I am sure you don't need any olive oil. Once the meat is starting to get crispy, add the cabbage or equivalent (I used one small cabbage plus a small bunch of collard greens) and the wine (I used white). Mix.

While the pasta cooks, cook the cabbage and wine (and etc) mixture at pretty high heat. Make sure the pan never goes completely dry, because you are effectively "steaming" the cabbage as you sauté it. I think that is what is known as braising (PMC: am I wrong?).

When the pasta is done and the cabbage is done, mix it all in a big, oven-warmed bowl along with lots and lots of grated cheese. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

pasta in a mushroom cream sauce

The 'fuzz brought back 1 oz of dried porcini mushrooms from her last trip to Italy (that jet-setter). Today we turned them into a mushroom cream sauce that was easy, fast, and exceeded all our expectations. Our only regret is that we did not have some crusty Italian bread to soak up the remaining sauce; I was drinking it from my bowl at the end. This recipe only serves two hungry people.

• 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
• garlic, olive oil, wine
• 1/2 cup cream or half-and-half
• few tbsp grated parmesan or equivalent
• pasta for two (not much!)
• fresh flat parsley, chopped a bit

Soak 1 oz dried porcinis in 1 cup boiling-hot water for 20 min. Sauté a clove or two of garlic, minced or pressed, in a few tbsp of olive oil. Add the porcinis (reserving the water they were in) and 1/2 cup of white wine. Keep at a low boil until the wine is fully evaporated. Add in the mushroom liquor—after straining it through a coffee filter to remove grit—and boil it down a bit too. Add cream and cheese and bring back to the boil. Salt (generously) to taste.

If you are clever, your pasta will be on the stove boiling, and just become done at this point; drain it and mix it in. Serve in shallow bowls with a mound of parsley on top, and crusty bread on the side.